Sunday, April 18, 2010

In the Land of the Deafening Frogs and Buttrock

4/18/2010

I found myself alone on a Sunday afternoon, so I decided that today was the day to head to Idaho for some stillwater fishing. I drove over the secret passage and got my self some Chubway and gas. I drove north up I-15, enjoying the new Horse Feathers album as I went. The album ended right as I pulled into my destination. I noticed a fisherman in a pontoon hunkered down in the shallows near a small inlet. As I ate my sandwich and got geared up, he stayed in that area. Though I didn't see him catch a fish, I figured he must be getting into them over there. I eased into the water and was delighted to find water in the low 50s. All this warm weather has really gotten things going. I fished a couple of leeches on a sinking line with nothing. I decided I'd try to some deep midge fishing, but still nothing. I noticed the pontoon guy was heading up the bank I was fishing, so I thought I'd pass him by and try his spot if he was leaving. As we passed we got to talking, and it turns out my suspicions were correct, he'd been knocking them dead over there on an olive leech. He showed me a four pounder he'd caught, I thanked him and hurried over to the honey hole. I missed a fish before even getting there, and then I had one on, but he threw the hook. The next fish I hesitated on and got a solid hookup. I heart Kamloops. They fight so hard for their size. I brought him in and was dismayed to find that he'd completley engulfed the size 8 Crystal Bugger and was bleeding badly. I decided I'd be eating trout for dinner tonight, but I didn't have a stringer as I wasn't planning on it. I eventually fashioned a stringer from my landing net's cord.

R.I.P Little Buddy

I caught a couple more and missed several more, and then things dropped off for a while. I bobbed around enjoying the cacophony of amorous frogs and foul minded fowl, though not the sound of redneck's buttrock blaring from their trucks. I guess that's what happens when you fish near Malad. This place is weird, people drive down, look at the water, and then turn around and leave. I don't really get it, but there's always traffic coming and going. I watched a bald eagle hop around on the far shore, and felt kind of embarrassed for the osprey that missed a fish and then couldn't get back out of the water again. Eventually he made it, but it took several tries. The sound of a loon flitted across the water, and I realized that most of the annoying people had gone home. About this time some clouds came in and fish began to eat midges off the surface. I started getting tons of hits, and I actually managed to catch some too.

One of them seriously jumped seven times in a row. I love these fish! I tried fishing an indicator with a midge pupa and a beadhead olive Crystal Bugger below it since the fish were eating midges. I missed three before finally landing one. He took the bugger. I switched back to fishing my sinking line. The sun came out and things slowed down again. I decided I needed to get home and clean my fish. Overall it was a fun day. If I would have landed everything that hit it would have been my best stillwater trout trip ever. I probably missed 40 fish and landed 12. Two took a size 12 black peacock Crystal Bugger, and the others took the size 8 olive Crystal Bugger. I didn't get any monsters, they were all pretty much the same size, 14-16" and healthy. I went home and enjoyed some grilled trout and green beans. Delicious. The stories I've heard of how tasty the trout are from this reservoir are true, it was one of the best trout I've eaten. It's flesh was bright orange like a salmon, and it tasted a lot like one too. Yum.